Membership Benefits:

BLACspace Cooperative Membership is a movement.

BLACspace Cooperative Membership is a community built on mutual support, shared resources, and collective growth. It’s designed for arts, cultural, community, organization, and business leaders shaping the world we live in and the future we want to create.

Members receive a holistic organizational wellness check, a personalized coaching plan, one-on-one and group coaching, hands-on Learning Labs, funder connections, tailored professional matches, digital resources and visibility, in-person gatherings, and opportunities to exchange knowledge, skills, and support. Rooted in Black cooperative tradition, cultural stewardship, and collective care, membership helps leaders strengthen their organizations while building the relationships, infrastructure, and shared power needed to create a lasting legacy. This is where the vision becomes collective action.

Individualized Support

Holistic Wellness Check: We will review your organization’s strengths and areas for growth with our in-depth wellness assessment.
Individualized Coaching Plan: After the wellness plan is complete, each member is given a customized coaching plan, which includes their wellness check score and an action plan supported by their coaches, along with earning labs recommendations.
4 Hour One-on-One Coaching: Receive personalized guidance and support from our coaching experts.
Personalized Matchmaking: We match members directly to professionals, peers, and partners aligned with their needs.

Professional Development

Skills-Based Learning Labs: Monthly hands-on workshops designed to elevate your organization’s capacity to thrive.
Access to Capacity Building Toolkit: Our member-exclusive portal that includes tools, tutorials, and resources to support business development, cooperative education, and capacity building.
Periodic Funder Cultivation Panels: Meet funders, learn about their priorities and funding opportunities, ask questions, and build relationships that can grow over time.

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Community Connection

Monthly Group Coaching, Co-working & Connection: Required sessions where Seed Members can work through challenges, make progress on their priorities, and receive support from coaches and peers.
Vibrant In-Person Events: Celebrate and collaborate with like-minded leaders while honoring our culture and community.

Member Socials: Quarterly in-person gatherings where members can build genuine relationships, share ideas, and connect with the Bay Area’s Black arts and culture community.
Offers & Needs: Structured opportunities for members to share what they can offer, name what they need, and find solutions within the community’s knowledge, skills, and resources.

Are You Eligible?

To be eligible for BLACSpace Cooperative membership, organizations must meet the following requirements:

Actively engaged in the promotion of Black arts and culture
You serve communities rooted in Northern California
Your organization has a history of offering arts and culture programming to the Oakland community for at least 2 years.
You hold or aspire to hold cultural space whether through real estate acquisition, long term lease, public land projects, pop up events, third and/or hybrid spaces or other formations.
Your group has a loyal community of participants, audience members, clients, supporters, or champions who actively take part in your programs.
Your group is set up as some type of formal organization, like a non-profit, LLC, cooperative, sole proprietorship, fiscal sponsorship, or collective.
Your organization/business shows clear capacity for 1-3 participants to engage fully with BLACspace’s offerings, including active involvement in one on one and group coaching, events, and cooperative governance (see schedule below).

Seed Membership Calendar

Group Coaching
Every 3rd Thursday 10 - 11:30 AM

Virtual + Mandatory

Member Retreat
Fall 2027, Northern California

In Person + Highly Encouraged

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Learning Labs
Every 1st Thursday 10 - 11:30 AM

Virtual + Optional

Seed Member Opening Convening
Feb 18th 2027, 10 - 4PM, Oakland, CA

In Person + Mandatory

Reciprocity dues

Members contribute based on a sliding scale tied to their organization’s budget. We suggest a minimum of 0.1% of your budget—so, for example, an organization with a $100,000 budget would contribute at least $100, while one with a $1 million budget would contribute at least $1,000. The full value of the program is estimated at $10,000, but during our start up phase, most costs are being subsidized by philanthropic support.

Please note that these initial rates may change in the future.

We can’t wait to hear from you!

—The BLACspace Team

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